Biography

Ian Jackson has a First Class degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. He went on to do a PhD with Bob Williamson at St. Mary's Hospital in London, at the very beginning of DNA cloning studies on humans. In 1981 he joined Don Brown's laboratory at the Carnegie Institution in Baltimore where he studies TF3A, the first vertebrate transcription factor to be identified. He subsequently joined the MRC Mammalian Development Unit at UCL, under the Directorship of Anne McLaren. In 1986 Ian moved to the MRC Human Genetics Unit as a Lister Fellow. He became an MRC Senior Scientist in 1991 and Head of Medical and Developmental Genetics in 2009. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2008. Among other current responsibilities he is currently President of the European Society for Pigment cell Research.

Academic Qualifications

Bachelor

1997, Bachelor of Arts, 1st, University of Oxford

Doctorate

1980, Doctor of Philosophy, PhD, University of London

Research in Nutshell

We study mice with genetic mutations in order to understand how genes control normal human development and disease. Mice have almost the same set of genes as humans, and malfunction or mutation of these genes usually has very similar consequences.

We study how genetic mutations lead to eye disease, in two ways. Firstly we examine mice in which random mutations have been created, in order to identify mutation that result in eye disease. Secondly, we look at mice in which particular genes have been knocked out as part of a prject that is systematically mutating every gene one by one.

We also study how genes control melanocytes, which are the cells in the body producing pigment in skin and hair. These cells have a very interesting embryonic histroy, and genes affect how these cells develop, proliferate and become located at the correct places in the skin and hair follicle.